Amrita Ram Interview: “I will be dressing up all the actors in Vada Chennai”
Amritha Ram is among the high profile stylists / fashion designers in Chennai city now. She has done her share of commercials, fashion shows, magazine shoots and is now packed with some plum film assignments, including Dhanush – Vetri Maaran’s Vada Chennai. In this chat with Kaushik LM for Only Kollywood, Amritha talks us through her career, starting from how she came into this line.
“I studied fashion and design at FIT in New York City. I came back here and wanted to do fashion shows, commercials etc. That’s when Mysskin sir wanted someone who was qualified in fashion and designing, for his Mugamoodi. It was a costume drama and there was a lot of scope in it. It was a good take-off for me and I started loving the magical world of cinema thanks to Mysskin sir. The transition from being a fashion student to cinema was made easier by him. Technically, Mugamoodi was great work though it wasn’t commercially successful.”
Amritha sees Mysskin as a friend and mentor …
“Mysskin sir has specific character bios and he taught me color psychology for cinema. We talk about a lot of things and I just have a chat with him whenever I need clarity. It is mentorship, friendship … You can call it anything.”
It must be noted that Mysskin launched Amritha’s exclusive fashion store, Soigne, recently. She further adds,
“After Mugamoodi, I wanted something meaty and out of the box again. But you soon understand that such stuff comes only once in a while. So I just went with the flow and did lots of commercials, magazine shoots, fashion shoots etc. As a result, I got in touch with many actors, who then wanted me to style for their films.
I worked on Shivalinga with Vedhika and also Mysskin sir’s Pisaasu. I also styled Devi Sri Prasad on his 20-city USA tour which spanned 2 months. We did concept dressing for all the Hollywood dancers and it was a lot of interesting work. I also got to style Allu Arjun for a song in Son of Satyamurthy and Devi Sri Prasad again in the Puli promo song.
Now I am occupied with back to back films like Veera Sivaji, Neruppuda and Vada Chennai. It is difficult to juggle between films and styling for stars in commercials and fashion shoots. I am now focused on films mostly. All these are great films and hopefully I can do justice to them.”
We are naturally curious to know more about the period gangster epic Vada Chennai, and Amritha obliges …
“About 6 months back, I had my first meeting with Vetri Maaran. After that, I didn’t hear from him. I was optimistic but didn’t expect to be on board for the project. 2 months back, I got the confirmation text from him. It is a very challenging film as we would be dressing up real life characters based on their socio-economic backdrop and the premise. We have to be very specific in the details.
Vetri Maaran is a genius. He is a man of few words but is so full of wisdom. I am learning a lot from him, like a student on the sets. He has been on this film for a while. It is still very early and the film is just getting into the groove, with 2 weeks of shoots, on and off. There are such great actors like Dhanush sir and Kishore sir, and I am dressing up all of them. All I can say now is that it is a great ambiance to be working among great actors and great technicians.“
‘Neruppu Da’ with Vikram Prabhu and Nikki Galrani …
“Vikram Prabhu is a super-chill dude while Nikki is one of my besties. We are going to give her a different look, which’ll surely be interesting. Then we have DoP R.D.Rajasekhar and young debut director Ashok Kumar, who doesn’t interfere much with the work of technicians and gives the required space.”
The key difference between styling and costume designing …
“Styling is about picking up ready-made, readily available clothes for stars while designing is about picking up fabric and stitching stuff from scratch. Both are two completely different things. A film like Vada Chennai has a lot of work for the designer in me. I have to put on my thinking hat and analyze in depth for the work involved.”
So, according to Amritha, who is the most stylish, well-dressed man around?
“Dulquer Salmaan, undoubtedly. I feel super-proud to have worked with him for his commercials and public appearances. I haven’t worked on his films yet due to time constraints as Malayalam films expect stylists / costume designers to be on set throughout the shooting process.”
Among the women?
“Coming to the women, there are lots of them and it’s difficult to single out. Every stylist has an edge and brings something special out of the girls. Recently, I gave a hot and sensual makeover for Aishwarya Rajesh in a ‘Galatta’ photoshoot. It was challenging as I couldn’t go out of her image totally and at the same time had to make her look hot. There was a sultry mood maintained in the photo-shoot. There is one coming up with Sanchita soon.”
Amritha concludes on an excited note. “I am having some really long days and have been forced to compromise on my favorite sleep. But I am enjoying to the core, as some great work keeps me occupied.”
Interviewed by Kaushik LM
